Falls
This should be kept within a patient's reach to reduce the need to get up unnecessarily.
What is the call bell/call light?
This is one of the most important ways healthcare workers prevent the spread of infection?
What is hand hygiene?
This standardized communication framework can help healthcare professionals communicate important patient information clearly.
What is SBAR?
What is the term for a noxious, harmful, or unintended response to a medicinal product that occurs at doses normally used for the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of a disease?
What is an Adverse Drug Reaction?
Writing your name and role on this item in a patient’s room helps them know who is caring for them.
What is the whiteboard (or communication board)?
Even without an injury, a fall can leave a patient with this emotional effect, making them afraid to walk or move on their own.
What is fear of falling?
When removing PPE, this item is generally considered the most contaminated and should be removed first.
What are gloves?
Reporting these events helps hospitals identify system problems and prevent similar events in the future.
What are safety events/near misses?
This is the process of comparing a patient’s medication list with the medications ordered during admission, transfer, or discharge.
What is Medication Reconciliation?
Dignity and respect, information sharing, participation, and collaboration are the four core concepts of this care philosophy.
What is patient and family-centered care?
A sudden state of confusion that greatly increases fall risk in older patients is called?
What is delirium?
These precautions are used when microorganisms can remain suspended in the air and travel over longer distances.
What are airborne precautions?
Honest, timely communication with a patient after something goes wrong in their care is part of this principle.
What is disclosure?
This term describes medications that carry a heightened risk of causing significant or catastrophic harm to a patient if a mistake happens during their use.
What are high-alert medications?
Identify three ways patients and families can share feedback about their care.
What are patient experience surveys, the Patient Experience office (by phone, email, or in person), comment cards on units, online feedback forms, speaking with Patient Care Manager (PCM)?
After a fall, a team gathers briefly to discuss what happened and how to prevent it again, in this type of meeting.
What is a post-fall huddle/debrief?
A healthcare worker uses a shared vital-signs machine on a patient with MRSA and then uses it on another patient without disinfecting it. This is the route of transmission that may occur.
What is indirect contact transmission?
Accreditation Canada lists these mandatory, evidence-based practices that hospitals must have in place to reduce patient risk.
What are Required Organizational Practices (ROPs)?
To prevent medication errors, this safety practice uses mixed-case letters to highlight the differences between look-alike, sound-alike drug names.
What is Tallman Lettering?
A patient who has or is currently receiving care/treatment in hospital may sit on this committee to help shape hospital decisions.
What is the Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC)?
Often practiced in parks and community centers, this form of exercise is recommended by fall prevention programs to improve balance.
What is Tai chi?
A patient with C.diff has their room appropriately cleaned but transmission continues. Staff are relying only on a disinfectant that does not kill spores. This property is missing from the disinfectant.
What is sporicidal activity?
Developed by psychologist James Reason, this model explains why most errors are caused by multiple small system weaknesses lining up, rather than one person’s mistake.
What is the Swiss cheese model?
This term, from the Greek words for “many drugs,” describes the risks that come with taking several medications at once.
what is polypharmacy?
The Model for Improvement, Lean, and Six Sigma are all approaches used in this structured, data-driven effort to make care better.
What is quality improvement?